Branding Your Series

You may have heard this said time and time again, but the truth begs repeating. The cover of your novel is important. And while you may get a great cover for your first book, if it’s part of a series, there’s another vital aspect to your publishing packaging to keep in mind.

Branding.

Now there are many aspects to branding, but we’re going to specifically look at the term in regards to covers.

What connects your covers to each other? Tone? Font? Color scheme? These are important questions authors should ask themselves while in the mock-up stage of the design process. Another question you might ask is if someone were to look through hundreds of thumbnails, would that person be able to pick out your books from the masses? Do your covers work (look beautiful, are eye catching, easy to read, and get the tone across) on both the large and extremely tiny scale? If you’re not sure if you understand successful branding, it might be time to head over to your book shelf (or e-reader). Look at a series you’ve purchased. What do you notice about the covers that tie the stories together?

But series branding isn’t the only thing to think about. Let’s say you’re ready for a new series, but you don’t want to confuse it with your previous series. However, you do want people to see the book and know it’s yours. That’s where font branding comes in handy. Keeping the same font for your name is a good practice. Let your readers know it’s you, but make the distinction between series at least somewhat obvious. (Especially if you’re writing in a different genre)

Notice the differences in Suzanne Ferrell’s covers from one series to the next. And yet, it’s clear who wrote them. Your readers should be able to pick your books out of a crowd.